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Anita Kumar: "McDonnell's staff has been more offended than they needed to be"

Monday, February 1, 2010

Some have questionned [sic] whether McDonnell even knew the racially diverse group sitting behind him, specifically the four seen most often on TV. Clearly, he does. They are members of his Cabinet -- Janet Polarek, Jim Cheng and Lisa Hicks-Thomas as well as a solider who served with his daughter Jeanine in Iraq. But McDonnell's staff has been more offended than they needed to be by the question. After all, they're the ones who put the group behind McDonnell in the first place in order to appear as inclusive as possible. The rest of the audience was far less diverse.

Ha, that should get the right-wing bloggers - who went bonkers following Bob McDonnell's SOTU response at the suggestion that McDonnell's people might have purposefully decided to put a diverse group on the platform behind the governor - all riled up once again. In reality, of course, Anita Kumar is 100% correct that they have nothing to get riled up about. The fact is, politicians' media people carefully arrange the backdrops for their boss' speaking appearances all the time. There's certainly nothing unusual or nefarious about it in any way. During the 2008 presidential campaign, we saw it constantly - by Democrats and Republicans alike.

So why are Republicans so sensitive - or at least pretending to be so sensitive - on this issue? Perhaps it's because of the fact (and it is a fact) that their party has a far lower percentage of minorities (and women, hence the huge "gender gap" between the two parties) than the Democratic Party does? Or maybe they just like being "outraged" about something? Anyway, I'm sure they'll enjoy Anita Kumar pointing out, correctly, that they are acting "more offended than they needed to be by the question" since, "[a]fter all, they're the ones who put the group behind McDonnell in the first place in order to appear as inclusive as possible." Ha.

P.S. For the record Bob McDonnell's cabinet has four women (Lisa Hicks-Thomas, Janet Polarek, Marla Decker, Terrie Suit), including one African-American woman (Hicks-Thomas), out of 17 members. It also has an Asian-American member (Jim Cheng), the last-minute replacement for Robert Sledd as Secretary of Commerce and Trade.

P.P.S. Tim Kaine's cabinet had 4 women (Viola Baskerville, Katherine Hanley, Jody Wagner, Marilyn Tavenner), including 1 African-American woman (Baskerville) out of 14 members. It also had an Indian American (Aneesh Chopra) and a Filipino-African American (John W. Marshall).

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The purpose of Blue Virginia is to cover Virginia politics from a progressive and Democratic perspective. This is a group blog, founded by me (Lowell Feld), but now including several other progressive writers. I can't speak for the other "front pagers," but I consider myself a progressive in the tradition of Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, JFK, RFK and actually a bunch of progressive Republicans (e.g., Jacob Javits, Lowell Weicker). As such, I believe in expanding opportunities to all, utilizing government as a tool to promote the general welfare and the common good, protecting the environment for ourselves and for future generations, and expanding the rights promised in our Constitution and Bill of Rights to all Americans.

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